Strategy

Innovation is required for any company that is not on track to meet its business objectives. Many companies declare innovation as a priority, but few go far enough to describe just how innovation will help it achieve its goals. In the absence of a well-defined innovation strategy, corporate innovators are virtually guaranteed to miss their mark, ultimately leaving innovation, itself, as a failed experiment.

The most successful innovation strategies will include:

Well-understood mission and/or purpose statements

A well-articulated vision which clearly states what success will look like, and when

Execution of a sound innovation readiness plan

A roadmap of expected innovation outcomes

Investment in new capabilities to unlock new possibilities

Organizations can greatly improve their odds of innovation success by taking the time to define innovation parameters and provide strategic context to their innovation teams. At NewBoCo, we help companies assess and define their current state, craft and articulate their future state visions and create strategic action plans for bridging the gap.

Strategy

“Vision without action is a daydream, action without vision is a nightmare.” - Japanese Proverb

Meet Our Team

Stacy Van Gorp,
Executive Director, McElroy Trust

Stacy Van Gorp, Ph.D. is the co-founder of See What I Mean. See What I Mean helps organizations gain clarity and accelerate progress with proven strategies and tools. Her work includes strategic planning, innovation and facilitation training, and coaching for leaders to effectively implement their strategy with stakeholders. While working across varied industries from philanthropy to user-experience, Stacy’s mission is to connect the people, resources, and ideas to change the world.

In addition to serving as See What I Mean’s leader, Stacy is also the Executive Director of the McElroy Trust, a $50 million foundation aimed at inspiring young people. In this role, she serves as an innovation scout and facilitates investment in innovative and effective ideas that help young people.

She is a native Iowan and earned her Ph.D. at the University of Iowa in Planning, Policy and Leadership Studies. Her research focuses on the role of trust in accelerating innovation and overcoming change resistance. Stacy serves on the Boards of NewBoCo, Iowa Campus Compact, The Veridian Group, the University of Northern Iowa College of Education Advisory Board, and the University of Iowa Cystic Fibrosis Family Advisory Board.

Mandy Webber
Director of Innovation, CSM & CSPO

Mandy Webber has more than 12 years of experience in marketing, business development, and corporate innovation. She has worked at organizations ranging in size from smaller Chicago construction companies to a large global corporation, Transamerica. As an innovation enthusiast, Mandy enjoys training, facilitating, and injecting passion in all things innovation, employee engagement, customer centricity, and workplace culture.

Mandy joined NewBoCo in March 2017 and has led the launch of a corporate innovation program to support existing organizations develop a culture that fuels innovation by embracing experimentation and rapid iteration. Mandy has many innovation and agile certifications including: Edward DeBono 6 Thinking Hats, Innovation Games Black Belt, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), and Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO).

Eric Engelmann
Executive Director, CSM & CSPO

Eric has been an eager adopter of Agile since 2008. First introducing the principles to the software team at his company, Geonetric, he expanded it fully across the company in 2013 – including HR, marketing and sales teams. This change built upon the self-organizing nature of Agile teams, and eventually resulted in having no traditional management at all. The company’s 80+ employees have developed tools and methods to work both autonomously and together, resulting in a strong culture that drives continued rapid growth, higher net income, very high client satisfaction rates, and strong employee retention.

After leaving Geonetric, Eric founded NewBoCo, with the intent to accelerate world-changing ideas, from Iowa. The nonprofit has built a local practice focused on adopting Agile in Iowa, but also has a strong network of the best Agile thought leaders in the world.

Eric is a Board Member at Scrum Alliance, the largest, most established and influential professional membership and certification organization in the Agile community.

Aaron Proietti
Founder, Adaptivity Enterprises

Aaron Proietti is a futurist, innovation leader, and founder of Adaptivity Enterprises, LLC, a futurism and innovation consulting practice that “helps others thrive amidst accelerating pace of change.” He views innovation not as an activity, but as a core business competency that must be developed, led, and nurtured within both the individual and the corporation. Aaron has spoken at numerous conferences on topics such as the definition of innovation, innovation leadership, culture change, collaboration, and exponential technologies.

His deep expertise in innovation comes from time spent in the trenches building and leading an innovation discipline from scratch at Aegon/Transamerica, a multi-national insurance and investment company. In 2016, Aaron chose to hang up his corporate cleats to spend more time with family and launch Adaptivity Enterprises. It is during this hiatus from the corporate grind that he has tuned his passion for futurism. Aaron now invests the bulk of his time in understanding driving forces of change to better imagine the world of tomorrow. From FinTech to genomics to renewable energy, he has developed a wide-ranging expertise in the disciplines that will get the world to where it’s going.

Born in Rochester, New York, Aaron got his B.A. in Mathematics from SUNY Geneseo in Western New York. He earned his M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA. He worked 8 years in Richmond, VA for Capital One as a data analyst, credit policy analyst, and product innovator. He has also lived in Maryland and Colorado, and currently lives outside Philadelphia, PA.